NJAC goes big for 2015

Could Wesley quarterback Joe
Callahan be the NJAC player of the year in 2015?
Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

The New Jersey Athletic Conference is getting a lot bigger and a
lot stronger in football in 2015, as Wesley, Salisbury, Christopher
Newport and Frostburg State join the league, while Morrisville
State moves to the Empire 8.

The additions, announced Monday, will return the NJAC to 10
teams and give the league a lineup of teams that have combined for
41 playoff appearances in the 15 years of the automatic bid
era.

As the NJAC has tried first to gain, then maintain that
automatic bid, it has welcomed associate members from Connecticut
(Western Connecticut State) and New York (Brockport, Buffalo,
Cortland and Morrisville State). But Western Connecticut left for
easier competition in New England, Brockport and Buffalo will be in
the Empire 8 this year and earlier this offseason, Cortland announced it was leaving for the Empire 8 as
well. With this move, Morrisville State will join them.

The core members of the conference are all New Jersey state
schools: Kean, Montclair State, Rowan, TCNJ and William Paterson.
They will be joined by the five football-sponsoring members of the
Capital Athletic Conference to form this super-sized league. Southern Virginia becomes an NJAC member starting
with the 2014 season, with the rest joining in 2015.

For Wesley, it will be the first opportunity to compete for an
automatic bid in football in the program’s history. As an
independent, the Wolverines have had to schedule 10 non-conference
games every year and played last year in Texas, Alabama, New Jersey
and North Carolina. Now Wesley will need just one non-conference
opponent each season.

Call it the New-JAC

The NJAC's 2015 alignment will feature three schools who have
been to the playoffs eight or more times in the 15 years of the
automatic bid era, and five schools who have participated in the
NCAA playoffs six or more times since 1999. Their 2013
results:

School

W-L

Conf

W-L

Overall

Playoff
appearances

Wesley

0-0

IND

10-3

0.769

10

Rowan

6-1

NJAC

9-3

0.750

8

Christopher
Newport

5-2

USAC

8-2

0.800

9

Southern
Virginia *

0-0

IND

8-2

0.800

--

Salisbury

5-2

E8

7-4

0.636

6

TCNJ

4-3

NJAC

5-5

0.500

1

Montclair
State

3-4

NJAC

4-6

0.400

6

William
Paterson

1-6

NJAC

3-7

0.300

0

Kean

1-6

NJAC

2-8

0.200

1

Frostburg
State

0-7

E8

1-9

0.100

0

Southern Virginia is a provisional member of Division
III.

“We are extremely excited about the future of our football
conference with the addition of these tremendous programs,”
said NJAC commissioner Terry Small. “Our presidents and
athletic administrators have been seeking stability in terms of our
football membership, and we now believe that we have assembled one
of the strongest football conferences in all of NCAA Division III.
By adding these quality programs and partnering with these
outstanding institutions, we believe we have aligned many of the
top Division III football programs in the region while helping to
ease the burden of scheduling that all of the institutions have
experienced throughout the years.”

Now spanning from northern New Jersey to southern Virginia, the
new conference is only slightly more compact – the longest
trip is the 412 miles from William Paterson to Southern Virginia
– but it will be a significant improvement for Salisbury and
Frostburg, who were members of the Empire 8 in football.
Christopher Newport has remained a member of the USA South in
football despite bolting the conference in other sports. And the
five NJAC members who sponsor football will at least have a chance
on paper at an automatic bid.

Football is a big driver of enrollment numbers for the two
private schools in this league, Wesley and Southern Virginia. The
NJAC's 100-man roster limit will be raised to include a 25-man
developmental squad (junior varsity) to try to mitigate the effects
of moving into the league.

The move also takes a little of the strength out of the Empire
8, taking Salisbury. But it also makes that league more compact, as
the Empire 8 in 2015 will consist solely of schools in the Empire
State, barring future moves. The 2015 Empire 8 lineup is
Alfred, Brockport State, Buffalo State, Cortland State, Hartwick,
Ithaca, Morrisville State, St. John Fisher and Utica. The E8 could
add Division III provisional member Alfred State to get to an even
10 schools.